Gary
Parsons looks at the RAF's most famous aircraft still serving on the
front line. Pictures Crown Copyright and by Guy Harvey

Tuesday 18
March 2008, and Chinook HC2 ZA718/BN touches down on the grass outside
the RAF museum at Hendon in North London - is this a practice for her
eventual resting place, for 'Bravo November' is arguably the most significant
airframe still serving in the Royal Air Force outside of the Battle of
Britain Memorial Flight.

With three
Distinguished Flying Crosses to her career, ZA718 has seen action all
around the globe and has a service record second to none. In the past
twenty-six years she has served in the Falkland Islands, Lebanon, Germany,
Northern Ireland, Kurdistan, Iraq and Afghanistan, with more years yet
to come. Of course, the legend of 'Bravo November' was born in her first
theatre, when in 1982 she was the only Chinook to survive the destruction
of the merchant ship 'Atlantic Conveyor' and provided vital heavy-lift
support to the troops liberating the Islands, despite no spares or support
equipment, very much in the 'can do' spirit of the modern air force. One
of the last examples of the initial batch of thirty-three HC1s delivered
to the RAF in early 1982, ZA718 (Boeing construction number B-849) arrived
at Odiham in the February and was allocated to 18 Squadron.

Falklands
icon

In April
ZA718 was cocooned in plastic and loaded aboard the container ship MV
Atlantic Conveyor along with three other Chinooks and six Wessex helicopters
of 848 Naval Air Squadron, D Flight, to commence the long journey to the
South Atlantic.

Detachment
commander Squadron Leader Dick Langworthy and a hundred of his 18 Squadron
colleagues were embarked on the commando ship HMS Fearless that sailed
into San Carlos Water with the main invasion force on 21 May. They were
subject to daily bombing raids by Argentine jets; "I did not like
running commentaries of bombing raids by the Navy" said Wing Commander
Lawless, then a Flight Lieutenant serving with 18 Squadron. "On a
ship you are not the master of your own destiny. You were powerless."

On
25 May, the Atlantic Conveyor was due to sail into San Carlos to offload
its cargo of helicopters and supplies, but an Argentine Navy assault Super
Étendard destroyed the ship with an Exocet sea-skimming missile,
with the loss of twelve British lives.

By sheer
chance, 'Bravo November' was airborne on an engineering test flight at
the time of the attack - the other helicopters aboard were all lost, along
with the second-line repair and maintenance support equipment and stores.
The crew of 'Bravo November', captained by the late Sqn Ldr Dick Langworthy,
managed to make it to safety on the aircraft carrier HMS Hermes, ZA718
being nicknamed 'The Survivor'. Operating without spares, tools or lubricants,
'Bravo November' flew for several weeks before additional Chinooks arrived
on the battlefield.

On 26 May
a much-reduced 18 Squadron contingent prepared to operate 'Bravo November',
but without tents, radios or any of the specialist equipment needed to
keep a Chinook flying they ended up working alongside Navy helicopter
units. On strength were one Chinook helicopter, two four-man crews, nine
technicians and ten men - all the spares, tools and servicing manuals
had been lost aboard the MV Atlantic Conveyor. ZA718 was by far the largest
helicopter available to the British forces in the Falklands, capable of
carrying about twelve tons.

'Bravo
November' was immediately put to use moving ammunition from the British
bridgehead to frontline artillery batteries. She ran into trouble on 30
May during a night mission transporting guns to troops - Special Air Service
(SAS) patrols had occupied positions on Mount Kent, overlooking Port Stanley,
but were coming under artillery fire and needed reinforcement quickly.
Lieutenant Colonel Michael Rose, SAS commander, wanted to make maximum
use of the Chinook's lifting power. "He asked if we could drop bombs
off the rear ramp of the Chinook," recalled Lawless. "We knew
the SAS were outgunned - our job was to land 105mm howitzers. Rose told
me the landing site was flat and secure - the mission was to be flown
at night with night vision goggles. We had three 105mm guns inside and
ammunition pallets under-slung."

"Then
the fog of war intervened - the ground was not flat and covered in boulders.
We couldn't find anywhere to land, and we spent time manoeuvring to drop
off the underslung loads. We had to put them exactly where the gunners
wanted because they could not roll the guns very far across the terrain.
I can distinctly remember troops moving under the rotor disc firing their
guns - this was not part of the plan. There were incoming artillery rounds."
When they tried to land to unload the guns carried in the fuselage the
Chinook's back end sank into the peat so that the ramp could not be lowered.
Langworthy raised the helicopter a few feet,
allowing the ramp to be lowered and landed again for a second attempt
- just as the guns were about to be unloaded the SAS, covering the landing
area, engaged a company of Argentine troops to the north-east At this
time, the lighting in the helicopter's rear cabin fused, leaving the unloading
operations in darkness, except for use of a few hand torches. "Once
we dropped off the guns we went straight back to San Carlos to bring in
more guns and ammo."

Lawless and
his pilot, Sqn Ldr Dick Langworthy, soon found themselves flying into
a snowstorm and then their night vision goggles began to fail. Due to
a faulty altimeter they hit water - "We were lucky, because if we
had hit solid ground we would have been dead", said Lawless. "We
hit at 100 knots. The bow-wave came over the cockpit window as we settled
and the engines partially flamed out. I knew we had ditched, but I was
not sure if we had been hit. Dick said he thought we had been hit by ground
fire. As the helicopter settled, the bow wave reduced. We had the collective
still up and the engine wound up as we came out of the water like a cork
out of a bottle. We were climbing!"

In
the back of the helicopter, one of the two other crew members, Tom Jones,
lost his helmet and had been about to jump, believing the helicopter to
be breaking up. Another crewman beckoned him to put on another helmet
and by the time he was on the intercom learnt that the helicopter was
climbing and passing 1,500 feet.

ZA718 had
held together - its radio antenna had been ripped off, the autopilot had
failed, there were holes in the fuselage and the cockpit door was missing.
With the radio damaged and unable to navigate, they managed to return
to Port San Carlos. Unable to contact the port, Langworthy approached
with all lights on, hoping that the missile defence would realise that
no Argentine aircraft would dare to fly so high and fully lit up. Fortunately,
the people on the ground at San Carlos were hearing ZA718's calls, although
the Chinook could not receive their transmissions.

'Bravo
November' held together for two more vital weeks as the British forces
moved towards Stanley. With no roads into the mountains, the only way
to the front was by foot or helicopter. While the Royal Marines and Paras
marched through the South Atlantic winter, the guns of the Royal Artillery
depended on 'Bravo November' and smaller Royal Navy helicopters to keep
them moving and firing. Lawless recalled that the helicopter was gradually
falling to bits and the lack of specialist lubricants meant its engine
and gear box were always in danger of failing. "We used and abused
it - peacetime constraints went out the window."

On 2 June,
two companies of paratroops were flown from Goose Green to Fitzroy to
seize the settlement - eighty-one Paratroopers were jammed into the back
of ZA718, almost double the normal load. The paratroops were landed and
'Bravo November' returned to Goose Green to pick up a second load, this
time 'only' seventy-five paratroops, which were landed near Fitzroy.

On its return
journeys from the front, 'Bravo November' brought scores of casualties
back to the improvised field hospital at Ajax Bay. 'Bravo November' continued
its sterling service until reinforcements arrived in the form of four
more Chinooks aboard the Contender Bezant on 10 June.

By the time
the Argentines surrendered, Bravo November had notched up over a hundred
flying hours, carried some 1,500 troops, 95 casualties, 650 POWs and 550
tons of cargo. Sqn Ldr Langworthy was awarded a DFC for his bravery at
the controls of ZA718 during the campaign - sadly, almost a year later,
he died of a heart attack after returning to the Falklands to lead the
Chinook detachment. By chance this included 'Bravo November' and, in a
unique honour, the Air Force Board approved the placing of a plaque commemorating
his DFC in the helicopter's cockpit.

Over ten
years of service, the HC1 was subject to a myriad of minor modifications
and refinements resulting in no two airframes being the same, something
the HC2 programme rectified. ZA718 was delivered to A&AEE at Boscombe
Down during May 1993, being the first RAF Chinook to be converted to Chinook
HC2 standard in 1994.

Into
Iraq

Twenty years
after the Falklands campaign, 'Bravo November' was back with 18 Squadron
as the unit was preparing to send a detachment to the Middle East on board
HMS Ark Royal in the build-up to the invasion of Iraq. During the liberation
of Iraq, 'Bravo November' spearheaded the assault on the Al Faw peninsula,
the site of a major oil refinery, being the first British helicopter to
land Royal Marines ashore in Iraq. The mission was to pre-empt any attempt
by the Iraqis to sabotage the oil refineries and prevent crude oil being
released into the northern Arabian Gulf in an act of environmental terrorism.

Squadron
Leader Steve Carr was nominated to plan and lead the first wave of five
Chinooks that were to land the commandos, and he chose ZA718 to lead the
mission. They overcame adverse weather conditions with visibility reduced
by dust and smoke, all while dodging relentless opposition fire. "I
was flying 'Bravo November' on the first wave," recalled Carr. "Visibility
was down to 1,000 to 1,500 metres - it was very dark, there was low cloud
and the air was full of dust thrown up by American tank columns and artillery
fire. Our night vision goggles were not much use. We were flying at hundred
feet or lower and then we went down to fifty feet when we entered Iraq.
Each aircraft had forty-two Marines on board plus their rucksacks, each
weighing around sixty kilograms! We had removed all the seats, so the
troops were all stood up, holding on to ropes that we had strung across
the cabin roof. Once we'd been cleared in to the landing site,
the aircraft went in three waves, two pairs and a singleton, each element
about one minute apart. The Marines must have been pretty pumped up as
they were out of my aircraft in twelve seconds. Within two minutes over
two hundred Marines were on the ground."

"On
the second run we were in a fire fight, with tracer all over the place.
Fortunately, all of it seemed to be outgoing." The Chinooks were
not the only aircraft in the air over Al Faw and the 18 Squadron pilots
had to carefully co-ordinate their missions to prevent accidents. "You
know it's for real when you are talking on the radio to two American AC-130
Spectre gunships in orbit above you, engaging some Iraqis who are firing
at the Marines from entrenched positions," said Carr. "It was
quite exciting. It was a busy piece of air space."

During a
three-day period, the aircraft averaged nineteen flight-hours per day,
delivering combat vehicles, artillery and troops. The mission was the
first opposed UK helicopter assault since the Suez Crisis in 1956 and
the largest in UK military helicopter history.

Over the
next three weeks, 18 Squadron flew support missions for British troops
operating around Basra, before returning home early in the summer. The
squadron's contribution to the success of the Al Faw operation was recognised
with Carr being awarded the DFC for his role in the operation.

Afghanistan
action

On the night
of 11 June 2006 Flight Lieutenant Craig Wilson, Captain of ZA718/BN from
1310 Flt in Helmand Province, was tasked to recover a casualty from a
landing site in Afghanistan. In difficult and dangerous conditions, despite
having done little night flying in Afghanistan, he flew at 150 ft and
made a precision approach and landing to extract the casualty.

A few hours
later he was tasked with a further casevac, but had to hold off while
an Apache gunship suppressed enemy action - despite being low on fuel
he made another difficult landing before returning to base with just enough
fuel to remain airborne. Then despite having been on duty for over twenty-two
hours he volunteered to deliver reinforcements to help a threatening ground
situation. His gallantry and extreme and persistent courage ensured the
recovery of two badly wounded soldiers and played a vital role in saving
their lives.

Flight Lieutenant
Wilson received the Distinguished Flying Cross for 'exceptional courage
and outstanding airmanship' while operating in Helmand Province. He said
it was a team effort, adding "I suppose really it's sort of bitter
sweet, as it's very nice to receive an award, but it's for everybody.
You can't do it on your own, but it just happened to be my name that was
put forward. It takes four people to fly a Chinook."

'Bravo
November' immortalised

On 9 December
2004, Sir Michael Jenkins, president of Boeing UK, presented to the Royal
Air Force Museum at Hendon a painting depicting the two DFCs completed
by 'Bravo November' at that time. Copies of the painting were signed by
the late Sqn Ldr Langworthy's widow, Jean, and his senior officer, retired
Air Vice Marshal Tony Stables, as well as Sqn Ldr Carr and Boeing artist
Joe Naujokas.

Boeing
also signed a $6 million contract in December 2004 to complete studies
for the United Kingdom's future heavy-lift, multi-purpose helicopter.
The RAF, the largest operator of Boeing-built Chinooks outside the United
States, currently operates a fleet of forty HC2/A Chinooks. A further
eight HC3s are to be converted to HC2 standard over the next two years
to bolster the hard-pressed fleet into the next decade. As for ZA718,
she will continue to serve until retirement, hopefully to a permanent
position within the walls of Hendon.